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Some people in the office swear by it, one said to me she wouldnt think of disney now without the dining plan, so it works for some folks eh?

I think she likes knowing that everything's paid for up front. In terms of having to make reservations, sadly nowadays, we've founde we have to make ADRs for everything we want months in advance to be sure of getting them anyway.

However for us, its value seems limited. We never used all the counter service credits so they were wasted. We used 2*credits for the nicer restaurants which ended up meaning to be honest, with 4 credits spent between us, we could've paid for the meal out of pocket anyway!

We prefer the Tables in Wonderland card which gives 20% off everything including alcohol

Even when the dining plan is included "free" we've sometimes ignored it because having to pay rack rate for the rooms has outweighed the benefit of the plan!

No qualms with those who love the plan, each to their own, but I just don't think it's the slam dunk absolute bargain which people tend to suggest

While I feel the "Free" Dining plan may be the culprit for clogging the restaurants I'm not sure that it really matters during non-free times whether you are on the DDP or not. If you know for sure that you really want to eat at a particular restaurant an ADR is a MUST.

We prefer the Tables in Wonderland card which gives 20% off everything including alcohol

No qualms with those who love the plan, each to their own, but I just don't think it's the slam dunk absolute bargain which people tend to suggest

We did the Tables in Wonderland last time & it was fabulous &, for us, a much better option. Will absolutely do it again instead of the DP our next trip (plus it's good for a year!). But isn't it just for AP holders or am I mistaken???

Also agree with the last statement Keith, just do not think it's the smokin' deal that some think or that perhaps it used to be.

We did the Tables in Wonderland last time & it was fabulous &, for us, a much better option. Will absolutely do it again instead of the DP our next trip (plus it's good for a year!). But isn't it just for AP holders or am I mistaken???

yep AP and florida residents however only one person in the party needs to have an AP & TIW card. Often once you work out how much a length of stay pass would cost + dining discounts, it works out better value

Also agree with the last statement Keith, just do not think it's the smokin' deal that some think or that perhaps it used to be.

It used to be a MUCH better deal for sure when starter was included and gratuity paid for you.

I Remember one trip where servers would insist on the best steak in the house, the lobster "not on the menu" added to the main course and so on great for us, server got higher gratuities paid by the plan etc.

Unsurprisingly perhaps not only did they take the tips off, removed the starter but they also took the more expensive items off the menu.

So yeah, nowhere near the deal it once was. Nice to wander round without money and just the card knowing it's all prepaid but not as good.

We rent a car too, but when on our hols we like a to have wine with our meals, so then we'd be relying on taxis instead, and it would boost the price again One of the things about atying at POR is we could go to DTD at night and at least have bar snacks and a drink if we had no ressies anywhere.

Keith, I didn't know about the TIW thing...I will go and price up the AP against it. If it includes alcohol it may well be worth it for us as we would always have it with our main meal. Thank you

Deb,we have it on our trip. But it was free and it's the 2 of us,so only us to please. I to hate being tied down to set times. But we have made a couple of breakfast reservations, YSH one evening And LTT in MK when we know we will be there and one at Le Cellier when we know we will be at Epcot. We have still have a TS credit at the moment because we don't want to be tied down. And like you we love a glass of wine etc and for me to Bus around to all the different hotels etc would be to time consuming.

Deb,we have it on our trip. But it was free and it's the 2 of us,so only us to please. I to hate being tied down to set times. But we have made a couple of breakfast reservations, YSH one evening And LTT in MK when we know we will be there and one at Le Cellier when we know we will be at Epcot. We have still have a TS credit at the moment because we don't want to be tied down. And like you we love a glass of wine etc and for me to Bus around to all the different hotels etc would be to time consuming.

If it were free we'd most definitely use it of course, even if we didn't use it all up. It wa one of the negatives of going when we are...definitely no free dining, and it kind of feels like you're losing out on something you should be getting as the free dining is such a money saver!

Well, as you know we DID book and decided against paying for the DP at £27 a day each. We didn't want to feel like we HAD to use the credits, and thought there may be days we may just grab stuff and go and not even have a sit down meal, or just go to a bar for cocktails/wine and have bar snacks. I also didn't want to feel like if I couldn't get a reservation for a meal I had to waste time finding somewhere to go just to use the credits up. We'll be off site for at least 4 days too (even though we'll probably be back on Disney property for the evening) which will obviously mean lunch and maybe breakfast elsewhere.

We looked into the cost of AP to offset against 20% of food and drink, but found that if we booked Ultimate 14 day tickets at the times of booking the holiday (£240 each) we received a Disney gift card for $550 as part of a current special offer, so that will go towards our food....if we had bought the DP as well we may have had too much money to try to break even on!

I now have to decide which handful of restaurants we definitely want to eat in and try to APR, but like you Siobhan I'm only sticking to a very small amount so we have as much leeway as possible on what we do each day.

I've gone in January the last couple years & it's really not crowded so hopefully you won't have trouble just walking in to places & getting seated. I just still remember our visit when we wanted to do Sci Fi with no ADR & the park was dead that day & we could not get in for lunch as it was booked up. That's when I REALLY started hating the DP, lol But as I said, that hasn't happened a lot just at the really popular places.